If You Wonder Why The Parodies Have Ceased...

Well, all I can say is reality has gone well beyond anything I can make up.

Here's the latest...

It appears that Pajamas Media's morph into Open Source Media ain't gonna be an Open Source Media morph for long. That's because there already is an Open Source Media operating in the media industry.

Selected comments from the Open Source Media post I put up yesterday should suffice:

From MisterMark:

According to Atrios/Eschaton, Open Source Media may already be trademarked by Chris Lydon in Boston. If that is true, some of the money raised by Simon and friends may quickly be going to their attorneys.

From Steven Den Beste:

I think this may be the first time in history that I actually enjoyed following a link to a post by Atrios.

Didn't anyone at PJM bother with a trademark search before they announced their new name?

From Seth Finkelstein:

Chris Lydon has a "service mark" for "Open Source". It's serial number 78582544 , look it up on http://www.uspto.gov/

Word Mark OPEN SOURCE
Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, a continuing series of audio programs about current events and culture via radio and global computer networks. FIRST USE: 20050428. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20050428
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Design Search Code
Serial Number 78582544
Filing Date March 8, 2005
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Lydon McGrath, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 7 Webster Road Milton MASSACHUSETTS 02186
Attorney of Record Michael Melford
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

From Seth, again:

Ah, here'a link with more details, it's in-process

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78582544

From Steven, again:

It turns out that their trademark is "OSM". The logo uses "Open Source Media" as a motto beneath that. You can see it at the top of this page.

There's no way that this is not infringement of Lydon's trademark. It's much too similar, and they're competing in exactly the same market with essentially the same kind of product.

And again:

This seems to be Charles/Roger's registration.

I wonder if they assumed that the USPTO did an infringement search automatically, and assumed that USPTO wouldn't grant them the trademark if it did infringe someone else?

That isn't how it works. Defense of a trademark is up to the person who owns it, and if they don't defend it they lose it. That's why it's very likely that Roger and Charles are going to be hearing from Lydon's lawyer as soon as Lydon himself hears about this.

Here's BTD Venkat:

The USPTO does conduct an infringement search and usually catches potentially conflicting marks. (An application takes a while to cycle through and OSM's application isn't even in process.) When presented with a conflicting registration or even a pending application the applicant has an opportunity to explain away the conflict. The Examining Attorney then makes the call and either issues the mark or rejects it.

You're right, Lydon's lawyer will be touching base with OSM soon I'm sure.

And Seth, again:

Steven: The links to the full records are only session links, they expire after a few minutes.

The OSM application status link should work, though the server is acting badly now:

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78738751

All I can say is what I've been saying for a month now...

THOSE BOYS ARE WINGING IT!

Note To Jim Koshland and/or Aubrey Chernick:

Time to call Roger...

Again.

Update: Steven Den Beste has further thoughts on this matter here.

Update the Second: More here from Venkat.

Comments

[Steven Den Beste]

I still don't understand their decision to invite Judy Miller to the grand opening to be a keynote speaker. I don't understand it at all.

[DennisThePeasant]

I'm betting the faculity of the New York Clown College all had prior engagements.

[Elmo]

Ummmm .... pretty sure this is the faculty.

[AJStrata]

'Open Source'is all over the SW market as well.

Are you telling me these people didn't do a name search???

[PBJ Man]

Quick! Somebody trademark 'Pajamas Media'.

[jayinbmore]

The most annoying thing about the name is that it's clearly the lamest possible attempt - by out-of-touch people trying to be hip - to capitalize on a term they don't understand. Not only, as mentioned before, is there already an Open Source Media, but there's already open source media as a concept. The Creative Commons family of licenses attempts to apply the principles of open source/free software to media content. Looking over the terms of service for Open Sores, you notice that it's standard issue old-media copyright; exactly what the open source style liscenes are not. As Dennis keeps saying, the reality is far more parody than any parody could be.

[Zeuswood]

The preexisting Open Source Media people have indeed noticed, as they noted here.

[Mac Thomason]

They now appear to be claiming that by giving up the opensourcemedia.net URL Lydon made his name fair game.

[nova silverpill]

this is too much fun. what's the german word for "schadenfreude"?

[David D]

One pleasant note, they will be paying damages to someone (Lydon) who is 180 degrees away from them in worldview.

[David D.]

Probably no help on the legal front, but at least Lydon's gig has a little something to do with the spirit of what "open source" means in the software/internet community. The Bush apologist crew's site has absolutely nothing to do with it.

[Red Tory]

Uh, oh! Back to the jim-jams for this motley crew of losers. How clueless do you have to be not not realize that the "open source" is already a widely used term in the public domain? Good grief, all they had to do was Google it to discover that Chris Lydon has had an "Open Source Media, Inc." for quite some time. What idiots. And they got $3.5 million in venture capital for this? Yikes! Somebody's going to get a tax write-off.

[Guesst]

Ahh the good old days.

Miss them.

[David N. Scott]

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